Justin Moore's New Sound

Artists and their music evolve, but staying true to themselves through it can be tough.

So goes Justin Moore's predicament as he recorded his new album Kind Don't Care. The "Small Town USA" singer has always been a traditionalist at heart, but staying relevant sometimes requires getting uncomfortable. "I really stepped outside my comfort zone on a lot of this album and I really stretched my legs and pushed myself and was pushed, willingly because it's important for us," he says through his record label. "The music's just not the same nowadays. And so I didn't try to go chase something down. I wanted to create something that was me that still wasn't compromising what I really enjoy about country music, but something that sounds modern."

Enter Justin's new single "Somebody Else Will." A December article in Billboard said it offered "the kind of light-soul bassline and haunting chord progressions that marked late-'70s and early-'80s blue-eyed soul by such acts as Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins and Hall & Oates."

Justin admits that finding the new sound made him a little nervous. "I was kind of nervous about that because I don't ever want to contradict myself from a music standpoint. I don't want to disappoint my hardcore fan base that allowed me to have the opportunity to be sitting here right now making a fourth album," he says through his label. "But I have to continue to grow and evolve or otherwise I'm not going be around. You know, you've just got to."

So how's he doing? "Somebody Else Will" currently sits at No. 24 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and No. 18 on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase country chart.